P.C. FL: More On "Chameleon" Elaine Parent...
Slimpickins
Thursday, April 11, 2002
Fugitive's case unfolds before investigators
'AMERICA'S MOST WANTED': Police get more than they bargained for in search
through Elaine Parent's personal items.
By DAVID ANGIER
The News Herald
Elaine Parent was known as the "Chameleon" because of her ability to gather
information on people and adopt their identity for her own purposes.
By doing so, she was able to elude authorities for more than a decade. It
took an America's Most Wanted TV broadcast to bring to an end her days on
the run.
Now, a few days after the 59-year-old woman killed herself in a Cove home,
Panama City and St. Lucie County authorities have been discovering more than
they bargained for as they sift through Parent's personal items and talk to
her known acquaintances.
"We thought we'd be gone in one day," St. Lucie County Sheriff's Sgt. David
Brooks said.
Brooks said they're hoping to gather more information as once terrified
victims come forward. He said that since Parent's death, her victims have
expressed great relief.
He encouraged anyone with information on Parent to call the Panama City
Police Department at 872-3112.
Since arriving on Monday, Brooks and two other investigators have collected
a wealth of information, but still lack some essential items that could shed
light on a vast criminal career that could include at least one murder.
Parent's local acquaintances told investigators that they would often see
her working on a laptop computer. But when officers searched Parent's room
after her death they couldn't locate the computer, CDs or software she was
known to have.
(Photo: This stage makeup book was found at Elaine Antoinette Parent's home.
Parent was known by law enforcement at "The Chameleon" for her ability to
change her appearance.) Buy Photo
They also found an "FBI Most Wanted" poster that appeared to have been
printed from a computer. The poster, which is probably fake, showed Parent
with the name Anotonia Rhyes-Ormond, and listed her as someone wanted in the
death of a "highly placed government official who was found murdered" in a
Washington, D.C., hotel room.
"After looking at it we feel like she made it up herself and was using it as
an intimidation factor on someone. We don't know who," Panama City Police
Cmdr. Mitch Pitts said.
Pitts said the photo on the poster was her passport photo. If it had been an
authentic wanted poster, he said, it would be unlikely that she'd still have
the picture.
According to a search warrant affidavit, a notebook was found that had all
the information Parent would have needed to assume a Lynn Haven man's
identity, including his Social Security number, parents' names, date of
birth and credit card numbers.
Parent had been known to adopt male identities and even change her
appearance to resemble a man. A disguise was found in her possession that
would have enabled her to do so again.
Investigators also found books in her room on how to apply stage makeup and
learn to speak French.
Panama City police encountered Parent and an elderly Lynn Haven man on Feb.
24, 2001, at an area restaurant after receiving a tip about her identity.
According to court records, police found Parent and the man leaving the
restaurant. They questioned her, but since she looked nothing like the photo
America's Most Wanted was using, and claimed she didn't have any
identification with her, they couldn't detain her.
Police in Miami also reported that Parent had a diary with her when they
discovered her asleep in a car in 1990. The diary was not recovered in her
personal items.
Investigators hope the diary contains information about her travels, and
could shed light on a murder in 1990 in St. Lucie County.
Parent was a suspect, or at least a material witness, in the murder of
Beverly Ann McGowan, a Broward County woman. McGowan's mutilated remains
were found in an irrigation ditch west of Fort Pierce.
Six years later, police were able to identify Parent as McGowan's mysterious
roommate who was known only as "Alice." Parent tried to use McGowan's credit
card at an airport shortly after the body was found, and still managed to
leave the country.
Parent has been tracked to California, London, Miami and Nashville, Tenn.,
since then.
One investigator said Wednesday that a suspect such as Parent could only
have been caught with the help of a show like America's Most Wanted.
"They were pivotal in this case," he said.
John Turchin, an America's Most Wanted correspondent, was in Panama City on
Wednesday to tape a follow-up to Saturday night's report. He and officers
staged a reenactment of the confrontation with Parent.
Turchin said the show might be broadcast in a few weeks.
Editor's Note: A dog that was referenced in Monday's story did not belong to
Parent, but to the owner of the property where Parent was living.
The writer can be contacted at dan...@pcnh.com
